Opinion formers appear to have forgotten Kipling, who warned of the outcome.

"It is always a temptation To a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: 'Though we know we should defeat you, We have not the time to meet you, We will therefore pay you cash to go away.' And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we've proved it again and again, That, if once you have paid him the Dane-geld, You never get rid of the Dane."